An experiment in state‐space acoustic control of a plate excited by steady disturbances

A demonstration of active acoustic control of radiation from a simply supported plate is presented. First, open‐loop characteristics of a 0.5×0.6‐m rectangular plate are shown to validate the assumption of nearly simply supported boundary conditions. Next, a state‐space design method for closed‐loop control of acoustic radiation is discussed. The design procedure is used to generate controllers that reject either narrowband or broadband point‐force disturbances of the plate's first four resonant modes. Simulation and experimental results are provided to illustrate the difference between active vibration control and active acoustic control. Radiation filters, derived from the radiation efficiencies of the modal basis, are implemented for these subsonic acoustic control experiments. During the acoustic cost experiments, the controller places a priority on actively damping only those modes that are contributing significantly to the acoustic radiation. The results of this active acoustic control experiment va...